Singer-activist urges patience and empathy
The road to reconciliation must include empathy and patience from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, famed Aboriginal singer-activist Buffy Sainte-Marie said Tuesday as she touched on a legacy of racism she has been fighting much of her life.
The award-winning songwriter told a Halifax audience that decolonization is a shared effort between the descendants of European settlers and Indigenous people, and Aboriginal people should teach others about injustice in a compassionate and non-combative way.
Indigenous people need to understand that much of “settler racism has to do with not knowing,” she told the sold-out crowd.
In effect, Sainte-Marie said people in conflict should treat each other as if they were children and didn’t know about Canada’s painful history of Aboriginal relations.
“Don’t devalue people because of their immaturity or their lack of knowledge — that’s what you’re there to remedy,” Sainte-Marie said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “You’re there to teach, not to scold.”
The celebrated Indigenous singer issued the appeal prior to a presentation ceremony at Dalhousie University, where she received an honorary doctorate of laws.
“Even though things have changed a lot, the good news about the bad news is that more people know about it now,” she said. “It’s going to take compassion and empathy and good hearts in both communities to ripen Canada into the way it could be.”